This year, the EF is decreasing its budget by roughly 40%, which entails some difficult decisions. The goal of the decreases was set out in the Treasury Management Policy last year: the EF is transitioning into being a long-term-oriented endowment-based organization, shifting from its pre-2026 average of spending ~15% of its remaining funds each year, toward a post-2030 target of ~5% per year. Often, when an organization goes through something like this, people try to pretend that nothing of great value was lost, that it is an efficiency increase, that the only people cut are unproductive dead weight, and everyone else stopped partying, studied the blade, entered cracked S-tier beast mode, and this was sufficient to make up for the downside. I will not try to pretend this. I respect my EF colleagues far too much to pretend that there was not much that is lost. They are brilliant people. They are dedicated engineers of whom some have worked on the Ethereum protocol for nearly a decade. They have brought a bright light to the Ethereum ecosystem with their code, their words, their warmth as human beings and their actions. My dearest hope is that they find a path that brings them fulfillment and happiness whether inside Ethereum or outside. Hopefully many will be able to bring their excellent talents and mindset to the wider Ethereum ecosystem, or the even wider CROPS world. Instead, I will try to explain what *are* some of the grand sacrifices being made. The Ethereum Strawmap is no small thing. It is an extremely ambitious undertaking seeking to replace and augment almost every part of the protocol - consensus, proofs, privacy, account model, state, and more. This is the third iteration of Ethereum, in the same way that the Merge was the second, even if the shipping style is less Big Bang and more one-piece-at-a-time. On top of this, the EF is increasing its role in the Access Layer. We are not compromising on Ethereum being a Deeply Impressive protocol, something worthy of its place in a world with quantum computing, rockets to Mars and powerful biotech and AI, and capable of meeting the challenges that this era will bring. Some of the deficit will be recovered through more work happening outside the EF. But not all. So what are the grand sacrifices that will enable a leaner effort to accomplish all of this? I will give a few examples (though far from an exhaustive list): * The multi-client model will shift in the direction of multiple clients existing less for _redundancy_, and more for _specialization_. Up to this point, redundancy has been the main security strategy: if one client has a bug, if it has less than 33%, the chain keeps going and does not even stop finalizing. We are increasingly exploring moving more pieces of the protocol to a different security strategy: AI-assisted formal verification. Some smaller pieces of Ethereum (eg. BLS libraries) have worked this way already for a long time. But soon many more parts of Ethereum will likely function on this model. This may greatly reduce resource requirements of shipping a large number of EIPs. The resources saved by client teams can ideally instead be used to better serve different specialized user needs, including EF Access Layer goals. * PSE (Privacy and Scaling Explorations) is winding down as a unit. The number of people working on ZKPs for privacy and scaling is probably as high as ever, but they are working less on "exploration" and more on *implementing* ZKP-based privacy and scaling into the Protocol and Access Layer * Devcon will likely over time become smaller-scale, somewhat more spartan, much lower-deficit than previous years, in addition to other changes in vision in line with the Mandate. * Fewer beyond-Ethereum megaprojects coming from EF. As I announced earlier this year, I am taking on some of the responsibility of doing projects in this category that I consider valuable with my personal funds. * EF institutional work is reducing in scope, specializing more specifically on creating replicable test cases of highly CROPS-friendly deployments, even if at smaller scale. These do not explain all departures; in some cases they do not explain departures at all and rather explain _reduced need for new spending_. But they are a large part of the strategy at play. In the longer term, I personally favor a "soft lean-and-done" approach to Ethereum: once the Strawmap is completed, generally stick to security fixes and small high-value changes, and have a much higher bar for considering new feature additions to the protocol. This allows Ethereum to remain capture-resistant without demanding very large budgets. Learn less from multimillion-line-of-code behemoth projects, more from bitcoin. The past years have been a challenging era for Ethereum. However, the ecosystem is adapting, both inside the EF and outside, and I am confident that Ethereum is very well-positioned to succeed and thrive. firefly.social/post/x/206940…

I hate this building so much.

After 3+ incredible years, today marks my last day as the Ecosystem Programs Manager at the @StacksOrg. Leaving architecture for this world was a bold leap—and I’m deeply grateful for the open space it gave me to reinvent myself. Thank you, Stacks fam. 🧡 memory lane.. The Pilling Phase In my past life I thrived in architect-led design/build. I juggled design, construction, and development, coordinating complex projects from conception to completion. Then crypto came calling—through my partner, @fbwoolf , an engineer who joined @LeatherBTC (back when it was still part of @hirosystems , pre @Stacks 2.0). Her enthusiasm was contagious, and soon I found myself hanging out in a now-defunct Discord server for the @SyvitaGuild, connecting with devs and degens who remain vital to the Stacks community today. What hooked me was the promise of open, decentralized communities powered by opt-in crypto-economic, rule-based mechanisms—where merit was rewarded, and incentives aligned. It felt like the antithesis of the extractive, zero-sum grind of the architecture, real estate, and construction industries. ...So, without a plan, I walked away from my architecture career, determined to find my place in this world I was inspired to join. A New Home Weeks later (thankfully!) the newly formed Stacks Foundation posted a job for a Grants Manager. With a knack for coordination and passion for coaching, I knew I had to seize it. I poured everything into the application—and thankfully, @br_ttany , @mcuevasm , and @jennyrmith took a chance on me. My foot was in the door. In that role, we funded a ton of incredible work and championed lots of experimentation—always insisting it be open-source, novel to the Stacks ecosystem, and immediately valuable to others. Ecosystem Program Manager By November 2022, with the Nakamoto and sBTC whitepapers dropping, it was clear during this next phase of Stacks that coordination would be a linchpin for success. Core devs were scattered across the Stacks Foundation, Hiro, @trustmachinesco , and @BitcoinL2Labs, (along with coutless community-led teams) and add'l coordination would be needed to help keep everything on track. Our tiny, but powerful Foundation adopted a Team of Teams philosophy and I carved out a new role for myself: Ecosystem Programs Manager. As a program manager, I oversaw interconnected projects, aligning them with a singular strategic goal—shipping Nakamoto and sBTC as fast as possible without compromising security. From that mission, several key programs emerged: - Critical Bounties Program: We shifted to an RFP model, driving faster, more relevant tooling development. - Signer Program: Onboarding a key new contributor to PoX consensus, Signers and ensuring swift adoption across testnet, mainnet, and sBTC. - Governance: Coordinating the SIP process, balancing community input with progress on the engineering critical path. - General Coordination: Countless small projects, tasks and air-traffic-control to keep dots connected and resources humming. - Was it flawless? Nope. But I’m damn proud to have supported this community—helping keep 80+ core devs, 100's of grant recipients, and multiple orgs unblocked and aligned as best I could. It’s been a wild ride, Stacks fam. I’m leaving with gratitude for the chance to contribute to something new & novel—and excitement for what comes next. More on that soon, but first, a short break...

Very excited to share that I’ve joined the @ethereumfndn EF Research Ops team as a Research Coordinator! The depth of talent and diversity of thought in this ecosystem is astounding 😳! I hope to share more soon, but currently - drinking from the fire hose! LFG!

lean ethereum thread: PQ workshop (Cambridge, UK) started hours ago. this thread will be updated with presentation recordings (and slides) as they occur 🧵

Join us for Ethproofs Day on November 22nd in Buenos Aires during Devconnect (@EFDevcon), focusing on zkVM proving advancements for Ethereum. Seating is limited: register here: lu.ma/ethproofs_day Interested in presenting? DM @corcoranwill on X or Telegram.

I worked for the architectural firm that designed this building and I am damn proud of it.

lean ethereum thread: PQ workshop (Cambridge, UK) started hours ago. this thread will be updated with presentation recordings (and slides) as they occur 🧵

Ethereum in suits @corcoranwill

Bitcoiners keep telling me that @Stacks is not BTC. I agree & I think @muneeb does too. I did an interview with him because I wanted to hear directly from the source. I want to release it but I’m getting told it’s a bad idea. What does everyone think? Release or hold onto it?

🚨 MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Next Fri., 2/18 @ 9am EST @StacksOrg Zoom w/ @dlc_link ⚡️ #Bitcoin Escrow + @chainlink Oracle + @clarity_lang Smart Contract | wrapped in a tasty Discrete Log Contract ⚡️ @muneeb @jack @RuleBasedInvest @philipdesmedt @diwakergupta @alexlmiller

At the recent NYC Edition of our College Tour, @corcoranwill of the @ethereumfndn presented @eth_proofs - a new benchmarking platform driving zkVMs toward 12-second proof generation. Standardized metrics, ecosystem alignment, and transparent data - all in service of @ethereum’s scaling roadmap 🤝 Also available on YouTube, watch the talk to explore how real-time proving is becoming possible: piped.video/watch?v=Wf2Xgi6d…

Still not sure what my takeaway is from this thread but one thing I did learn is there is a surprising amount of low follower count/new accounts that are somehow extremely bullish on Stacks. Getting LINK marines/Cardano retards vibe. Don't know how to feel about this...

lean ethereum thread: PQ workshop (Cambridge, UK) started hours ago. this thread will be updated with presentation recordings (and slides) as they occur 🧵

The current New York City Wallet balance is valued at $2,078,162.30 (921,511.01 STX): mining.nyc/wallet